


If Anything, the Flowers Still Bloom

by Madin456



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Festus - Freeform, Flowers, Language of Flowers, Mechanics, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 19:10:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1358668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madin456/pseuds/Madin456
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. "Watch out!" A crash. A trampled garden. A ruined summer vacation. A school project with a very annoyingly persistent boy (though he was kind of cute, she had to admit). Calypso's first meeting with Leo was anything but perfect, but the flowers told her that everything was going to be okay. Caleo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If Anything, the Flowers Still Bloom

If there was anything that she really liked, Calypso thought it would have to be summer. 

In this particular season, the sun was usually high up in the sky, shining down brightly, providing a warmth that people, plants, and animals alike needed. The sun’s rays hit Calypso’s entire body like a splash of cold water, waking her up but also helping her relax and enjoy the nice weather that was finally provided after long months of snow and ice.

The auburn-haired girl tied one last knot in her carefully braided hair and positioned it comfortably over one shoulder before taking a look in the mirror and nodding to herself, satisfied. She exited the back door of her house and, once again, found herself in her favourite place in probably the whole world—her garden. Kneeling beside the fully bloomed plants at the end of summer, Calypso absorbed in the beautiful sight as she watered them one-by-one, glad that she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt instead of her usual white dress. 

If Calypso was dedicated to anything, it would be gardening—fluorography in particular—and her garden, though small, represented her vast knowledge on the subject well. At times, she felt that the flowers almost spoke to her through the rhythm of their swaying and how much they bloom, and if she _really_ managed to connect with them, they would whisper things at her.

Call it crazy if you want, but Calypso knew it was no hallucination.

As she walked past the flowers, something caught her eye: A patch of bright yellow and pink Begonia swayed violently as a gentle breeze blew by, startling the girl. This specific flower’s meaning meant “beware” but even she wasn’t sure if that meant something good was going to happen or something bad. When a petal fell off one of the Begonia flowers and landed in Calypso’s hand, she couldn’t stop herself from gasping, because if a patch of blooming Begonia meant beware, what did it mean when it fell apart? 

_“Watch out!”_

The girl’s head snapped up at the sound and she only got a chance to catch a quick glimpse at a flying, metal object that came out of nowhere before she had to duck as it swirled around her a couple of times before zipping and damaging each and every one of her flowers. When it finally landed right in the middle of her plants, she shrieked in horror and ran over to her now dead garden.

“Hey, sorry about that.” A boy with curly brown hair and rather pointy ears walked into view. He had an apologetic look on his face. “I was reprogramming Festus here and I guess it malfunctioned.” He jumped over her fence and Calypso couldn’t help but notice that he _trampled all over her garden_ to retrieve his toy. 

“Don’t—don’t do that!” Calypso rushed over to try and rescue her poor flowers, scooping dirt furiously with her shovel. “Can you _move over_? You come in with your flying thing—”

The boy stepped away from her. “Hey! Festus isn’t a _thing_ ; he’s a mechanical dragon!”

“—and completely ruined my garden! What do you think you’re doing?!” Calypso said quite rudely, a bitter edge to her tone. Once again, her flowers have been right; the Begonias must have been trying to tell her to beware this boy.

“Calm down, Sunshine. I was just trying to test out my new creation.” The boy nodded towards the lifeless piece of metal on the ground and gestured at the controller in his hands. “After upgrading Festus, I was giving him a test run, though it seems that something went wrong.” He muttered quieter to himself, “Maybe if I change some buttons...”

Calypso paused in her worked and finally took a good look at the person who stood in front of her. He was inspecting the dragon, his hands tapping unconsciously, and although she hated him for wrecking her garden, she had to admit that the dragon was well-built. “You named the dragon?” She asked, her tone much softer now.

He looked up at her and smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I give all my creations names.”

_All his creations? So he’s a mechanic, then,_ Calypso mused silently. The boy didn’t look much older than her. _To be able to make something like that at such a young age..._

She walked over and knelt beside him, her garden momentarily forgotten. He watched her intensely. “The wing,” she said finally. “I think there was something wrong with it when it was flying. I only caught a glimpse, but it didn’t look very stable in the air.”

He looked at her in surprised before flipping Festus over. “Hey, you’re right.” Reaching into the tool belt around his waist, he pulled out a screwdriver and tinkered with the metal until he was satisfied. Calypso watched him work in awe, his hands moving efficiently, and she was taken back at how quickly he fixed it. 

The boy set the dragon on the ground before taking a deep breath and pressed the controls. “Let’s get this baby flying,” he muttered, eyes gleaming. Slowly, with a beat of its strong wings, Festus took off, rising high up into the sky. It glided smoothly around trees and swooped down to circle around Calypso as she laughed in delight before finally landing back on the ground, this time without damaging anything.

Calypso smiled as the boy whooped and practically jumped up in joy. There was something about the way he smiled, something about the way he looked at her and thanked her, that made Calypso feel all warm and fluttery inside. 

“See you later, Sunshine! Thanks!” Calypso waved goodbye to the boy as he walked out of her yard. She turned back and looked at the garden that Festus had ruined before laughing lightly and shrugging; after all, summer was almost over anyway, so where was the harm? Humming to herself, she walked back into the house to wash up; she ended a lot dirtier today than she thought, but she realized that she didn’t mind.

In the corner of Calypso’s garden, a small, purple Gloxinia flower—the symbol of a newfound love—stood tall, miraculously surviving the damage from earlier, blooming brighter than ever before. 

**-xXx-**

If there was anything that she particularly disliked, Calypso thought it would have to be her Mechanics teacher, Mr. Brunner. 

It wasn’t exactly that she _didn’t_ like him; it was more like _he_ didn’t like _her_ —though she never quite understood _why_ —so you could say that he wasn’t her favourite person in the world. Calypso had him as a teacher last year and for some reason, from the minute she walked into the classroom, he narrowed his eyes at her and already indirectly declared his hatred for her. 

Just her luck; Mechanics happened to be her first period class this year.

Heaving a sigh, Calypso made her way to the classroom, hoping that there would at least be some of her friends in the same class so that it’d seem like less of a torture. Not even bothering to greet Mr. Brunner, she took a seat near the back of the room, as far away from the teacher’s desk as possible, and settled down. So far, there were no familiar faces in the class.

Not long after more people piled in, the teacher started calling out names and taking attendance. Even from the back of the classroom, Calypso could see him frown slightly when he reached her name, but quickly covered it up as he moved down the list.

“Leo Valdez?” Mr. Brunner looked around the classroom, but no one raised their hand. Silence filled the room. “Is Leo here?”

“I’m here!” The door slammed open, revealing a curly, brown-haired boy who had his hands on his knees as he huffed to catch his breath. His eyes closed for a few seconds before he straightened and handed the teacher his late slip. 

Mr. Brunner nodded. “Take a seat, Valdez.”

Leo glanced around the room and his eyes landed on the only empty seat beside Calypso. As the auburn-haired girl watched him walk towards her, running a hand through his messy hair, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh; if she had been the one late, she’d probably end up with a detention. 

“Hey,” Leo greeted her as he sat down. Then, he turned to face her and blinked. “Wait, are you the one who helped me fix Festus? The girl who—”

Calypso raised an eyebrow at him. “The girl who got her garden destroyed? Indeed, that was me.”

He chuckled and she couldn’t help but smile too. “So what’s your name, Sunshine?”

“Will you stop calling me Sunshine if I tell you?”

Leo grinned, his eyes gleaming mischievously. “Never.”

“Then no. You’re going to have to figure it out yourself.” She returned his smile.

He sent her a confident smirk. “Is that a challenge?”

Just as she was about to answer, she heard her name being called.  
“Calypso!” Their teacher snapped at her, smashing his hand on the desk firmly. She adverted her attention to the front of the classroom and realized she hadn’t noticed that Mr. Brunner had been talking the entire time. “Be quite and pay attention! If you interrupt the class one more time, I’ll have to send you to the principal’s office.” He narrowed his eyes at her.

The girl could only nod meekly. Beside her, Leo had to cover his mouth with his hands to keep his laughter from spilling out; so much for making it a challenge, Calypso thought.   
“So, _Calypso_ , is it?” The boy beside her teased and she rolled her eyes. “I still think the name Sunshine suits—”

“Valdez! You be quiet too!” The teacher barked, cutting off Leo’s sentence.

The boy scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Uh, yes, sir. Sorry.” 

And although they both ended up getting kicked out of class on the first day of school, Calypso couldn’t help but think that maybe Mechanics class wouldn’t be so bad this year with Leo.

**-xXx-**

If there was anything that would surprise her, Calypso thought it would have to be the sound of the doorbell attached to her house.

She has been living in the same house for as long as she could remember and she didn’t even recall a single time the old piece metal that took up space on the wall beside her door worked. If someone came over, they would have to knock but since Calypso spent most of her time in the backyard, she usually didn’t hear the sound until the sixth or seventh time, which was why she was glad that she didn’t have visitors very often.

So when she entered her house from the back door one day after returning from the grocery store carrying a few bags of food that couldn’t be provided from her garden, she extremely startled to hear the _ding-dong_ sound coming from the front of the house. She immediately dropped her groceries, fumbled to get the key in her pocket, and unlocked the door before racing to the other side of the house, her brain whirling with different possibilities of how this miracle could’ve happened.

It would be an understatement to say that Calypso was shocked to find out that the miracle worker was none other than Leo Valdez. 

“Leo?” The boy turned when he heard his name. “What are you doing here? _How did you get in my house?!_ ” Calypso’s eyes were wide as she tried to recall whether she locked the door before she left to buy groceries or not. She was pretty sure she did because she remembered almost forgetting the key in the keyhole. 

The boy chuckled nervously and avoided eye-contact. “I sort of, uh, picked the lock.”

Calypso stared at him incredulously. How could he... how could he say that so _calmly_? It was like, _“Oh, I just happened to know how to pick locks so I decided to barge into your house. Hope you don’t mind.”_ She didn’t know what year he’s been living in, but that definitely wasn’t something that occurred often in the twenty-first century. 

But assuming that was perfectly normal and completely disregarding the fact that he could be here to rob something from her, Calypso reluctantly asked, “Where did you learn to pick a lock?” As if _that_ was the most important thing at the moment.

He grinned and twirled the screwdriver in his hand carelessly. “I learned it myself. All I need is something thin, like a bobby pin, and I just play around with the lock until I hear a click. I could teach you if you want.”

Calypso shook her head, but a smile crept onto her face. “You really are something, Leo Valdez,” she muttered. 

Leo wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Impressed?”

“Yes,” she admitted and she could almost see him doing a happy-dance inside his head. “But what are you doing here?”

“Oh, right! I was fixing your doorbell. See, it works now!” He walked over and pressed the button a couple of times. _Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong—_

“Stop!” Calypso closed her eyes in irritation and sighed. “I get it. _But why?_ ”

Leo blinked. “Um, well, because I ruined your garden and you helped me figure out what was wrong with Festus. Did you not want your doorbell fixed?” He started to look worried and Calypso couldn’t help but think that he looked cute when flustered. “I can change it back if you—”

She silenced him with a finger to his lips and he staggered backwards against a wall, a blush creeping onto his cheeks as he tried to stop his heart from racing. “I am grateful that you fixed my doorbell, but was it really necessary to pick the lock and come into my house?”

Leo waved her comment off carelessly. “Details, details. So now that I’m here, how about we go and see your garden?”

Calypso blinked. It was rare that anyone ever asked to visit her garden, but she smiled nevertheless and grabbed his hand, leading them out the back door. She showed him the flowers that were withering because of the cold weather that was approaching and the patch of Hellebores flowers that were especially designed to grow during the winter days. And he listened to every word she said, absorbing in all the details like no one has ever before.

“And that, in a nutshell, is Ogygia,” Calypso concluded her tour.

He turned and stared at her. “You named your backyard?”

She raised an eyebrow at him in return. “If you can name a metal dragon, why can’t I name my backyard?”

“Touché.” 

**-xXx-**

If there was anything that she wondered about, Calypso thought it would have to be the nickname “Sunshine.”

Sometimes, she thought that the name was more appropriate for Leo because he always seemed so cheerful and full of energy, like how he was now, cheering and screaming at the top of his lungs in the middle of the classroom. “YEAH! I’ve been waiting for something like this!”

Calypso covered her ears with her hands. “Will you quiet down?” She hissed. Mr. Brunner gave the boy an odd look, but said nothing. “You may be excited about this assignment, but you still need to find a partner and I still need my sense of hearing, please and thank you.”

The boy smirked at her. “But I already have a partner.”

Calypso raised an eyebrow. “Who would want to be partners with someone as loud and obnoxious as you?”

“Wow,” Leo gasped dramatically, “I never knew you’d insult your partner like that. I like to think of myself as _amazing_ and _awesome_ and extremely _badass_.”

“... Wait, what? My partner?”

Leo grinned. “Of course! Don’t you feel honored that you get work with me? I mean, _me_!” He paused for a second before adding, “ _Me!_ ”

The auburn-haired girl rolled her eyes. “In that case, since you’re so amazing and awesome and _badass_ , you wouldn’t mind doing all the work, right?” At the exact moment she finished her sentence, the bell rang and she got up from her seat and left. 

Leo stared after her, his mouth slightly hung open before he broke into a smile. He had been right all along; this was going to be a fun project. 

**-xXx-**

If there was anything she found unexpected, Calypso thought it would have to be Leo Valdez’s house—or rather, his workshop.

Despite what she said earlier about not wanting to help him do the work, she ended up following her classmate home a few days later to get started on the assignment because, after all, it would be completely unfair to let her partner do all the work while she relaxed and get the credit for it. She had expected Leo’s house to be like any other house, with a TV and couch in the living room, a rather clean kitchen, and bedrooms.  
She was wrong.

“It’s a little messy,” he had warned her on the way there. That was a huge understatement. When the two of then walked in the front door, the first thing Calypso noticed was the smell of metal and she didn’t even know that the scent could be so _strong_. Her nose tingled with a weird sensation.

The living room—at least she _thought_ it was the living room; for all she knew, it could’ve been the boy’s bedroom—was pure and utter chaos. There were scraps of metal and unfinished inventions scattered all across the floor to the point where it was hard to simply walk to the other side and she only just stopped herself in time to prevent herself from stepping on an open box of nails and screwdrivers lying on the ground. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget the chainsaw that was sitting casually in the middle of the room.

“Okay, let’s get started.” Leo pushed aside some of his equipment to create a clear space on the ground. His fingers tapped the wooden floor nervously; he never had a girl come to his house before and didn’t quite know how to act. “So we agreed that we’re going to make a robot and that its purpose will be to plant and take care of flowers, right?”

Calypso nodded. The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, unfolding it so they could see the whole thing. “I made a rough sketch of what it will look like with all the materials we need and the measurements. What do you think?”

For a rough sketch, it looked pretty detailed to Calypso. He had marked out practically every little detail they needed and the entire page was filled with rushed handwriting. 

“It’s great. What can I do to help?”

“I thought you wanted me to do all the work?” Leo smirked.

“You remembered that?”

“Leo remembers, Sunshine. _Leo remembers all._ ”

The boy got up and walked around the room to grab some tools before coming back—how he could find anything in this mess, Calypso had no idea. He twirled a screwdriver casually in his hand and pointed at the top of the page. “Why don’t you start here while I work on the bottom part?” 

And the two of them got to work. The next few hours were filled with sounds of metal clanking, the clashing of hammers and nails, and occasional questions from Calypso. At one point, she paused in her work to watch her partner endeavour in the assignment, fingers tapping away quickly and efficiently, eyes never looking up from the object in his hands, and she couldn’t help but admire how dedicated he was. He tinkered with the metal until he was satisfied and looking back at the sketch, Calypso noticed that he hadn’t made a single mistake so far, unlike her, who came across problems every five minutes.

At this rate, he was going to finish his part before she was even done half of hers. Leo was so absorbed in his work that he didn’t even realize that Calypso had left the room in search of paper for the report that they had to hand in along with the actual robot. The girl found a piece of scrap paper in one of the other rooms and returned with a pencil to start on the report.

A few hours of comfortable silence passed and the next time Calypso looked at the clock was when she had finished her report and Leo had finished almost half of the entire robot boy himself. 

“Jesus, Sunshine!” Leo exclaimed. “You’re done the repot already? You sure work fast.”  
Calypso sighed. “Not fast enough, it seems. I’ve barely done anything for my part of the actual robot and look at how much you’ve completed.”

Her partner laughed. “I guess we make a good team, then. Anyway, when we’re done, where to do want to test Caleo out?” 

She raised an eyebrow at him. “You named our robot _Caleo_?”

Leo looked flustered. “Um, yeah. It stands for Calypso and Leo. You don’t like it? We can change his name if you—”

“I love it,” Calypso interjected. “How about we meet at the Gardening Club after school a few weeks from now so we’ll have time to fix things up and get ready? Then, we can test to see if the robot—uh, _Caleo_ —can actually perform its designed duties.”

Leo nodded. “Now that I think about it, none of this would’ve happened if we didn’t meet in the summer. Aren’t you glad that I destroyed your garden, Sunshine?”

Calypso scowled, but even so, she couldn’t help but smile because she agreed with him completely.

**-xXx-**

If there was anything she loved doing, Calypso thought it had to be taking care of the school garden.

It was practically begging to be taken care of, especially since no one else really bothered to stop by and water the plants, so she took the responsibility upon herself and now, she goes there to visit after school often. On this particular day, someone else joined her. 

“You know, when you said the Gardening Club, I thought you meant an after school activity with _people_ ; not just you by yourself in the field.” 

Leo Valdez came into view, holding their robot, fully equipped with arms and legs and even a built-in watering can in its mouth. 

Calypso grinned. “Oh, but I’m _not_ alone; I have all my flower friends with me,” she replied, to which Leo burst out laughing and she frowned but giggled along with him. 

“Okay, okay; whatever you say, Sunshine,” Leo managed to choke out through his laughter. “Now let’s get started.” He tinkered with the robot in his hands, turned on its switch, and placed it on the floor. The two of them watched as Caleo lifted one metal leg followed by another until it made its way over to the flower patch. Its mouth opened slowly and water squirted out. 

The mechanics students high-fived and cheered. “What now?” Leo asked. 

“Now, I welcome you officially to the Gardening Club.” Calypso paused to clear her voice. “I, Calypso, president of the Gardening Club—”

“The _only_ member of the Gardening Club,” Leo couldn’t help but add.

She rolled her eyes and ignored him. “—now announce Leo Valdez to have the authority of helping the environment and planting crops in the school garden.” She walked over to a pile of seeds and handed them to the boy. “Choose the first flower you want to plant and your membership will be official.”

Leo looked them over, frowning. Somehow, he thought that this just might be one of the most important decisions in his life, but he knew nothing about flowers, so how was he supposed to choose? _Following my gut feeling it is, then._ He grabbed a pack of seeds, tore open the packaging, and begun digging a hole in the soil.

Calypso didn’t tell him, but the package that he chose contained Ambrosia flowers, the symbol of a love being returned. 

**-xXx-**

If there was anything she was thankful for, Calypso thought it would have to be meeting Leo that summer. And it was okay that her garden got destroyed because the next year, Leo was over at her house every day all throughout July and August, helping her replant flowers. 

And if anything, the flowers still bloomed in late September.


End file.
